Considering a total of 21 goals have been scored in the last six meetings between these two teams, including three apiece in their most recent clash two months ago, another enthralling encounter with plenty of goalmouth action could on the cards on Thursday.
Both sides have experienced inconsistent spells of form in recent weeks, but when taking into account Marseille's solid home form and Ajax's poor away record, we believe that the hosts will come out on top to secure their place in the Europa League knockout rounds, eliminating their Dutch counterparts in the process.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Marseille win with a probability of 40.74%. A win for Ajax had a probability of 36.57% and a draw had a probability of 22.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Marseille win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.45%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (5.92%) and 2-0 (5.15%). The likeliest Ajax win was 1-2 (7.97%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.71%). The actual scoreline of 4-3 was predicted with a 1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Marseille would win this match.